notes on“THE SEA WITHIN” series
Los Angeles artist David Lewis Phelps deconstructs the Spanish colloquialism “mar adentro” in his ten-part series “The Sea Within. The Spanish language idiom translates differently across regions from variances on “out to sea” to “into the deep.” Focused on traditional and contemporary art elements, Phelps’ paintings explore the concept of “The Sea Within” in a concise narrative of color and form.
Phelps’ canvas paintings are all a uniform 24 x 30 inches in acrylic media. Each piece hearkens to traditional portraiture, utilizing an architectural frame around his central subject—in this case, deconstructed cubes of sea. Contemporary formalism, utilizing lines and color reminiscent of modern and postmodern movements, highlight Phelps’ enigmatic glimpses of the ocean through a visual language that explores our personal relationship with the spaces we inhabit.
Inspired by the changeable nature of the phrase, mar adentro, and the oceans themselves, Phelps paints as a structural stage beginning with an open window looking out. “Life as we know it,” explains the artist,” evolved from the oceans, which means that we all carry a memory of the deep. As the paintings compel us to look out, they also ask us to look within.”
